Gabon

Where the name comes from

Gabon comes from Portuguese gabão, a hooded cloak; sailors thought the Komo estuary looked like one.

First people

The Ogooué valley was a route through the rainforest for Bantu-speaking and other peoples, and at Lopé-Okanda, ironworking remains and rock carvings preserve traces of those journeys.¹

Known for

Gabon is known for its rainforests, which cover most of the country and shelter forest elephants and gorillas.²

Outside contact

Fang and other communities lived here before French coastal treaties in 1839 and 1841, and Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa in 1910.³

The modern country

It became independent in 1960.³